John Young Taylor (1854-1939) was born in Canada to George Taylor and Lady Margaret
Graham in 1854. He married Annie May Bingham with whom he had six children: George
Dudley (1879-1938), Grace Lucille (1894-1967), John Young, Jr. (1883-1938), Anna May
(1885-1960), Clara Dudley (b. 1887), and Jane Gertrude (1888-1960). They moved to
Oswego, New York in approximately 1887, before the birth of their last child in
1888.

Taylor worked as a salesman for the Pictorial League in New York, for which he
traveled across North America and even Cuba selling advertising cuts, or services.
Taylor greatly admired Henry David Thoreau and modeled his life after his example,
frequently camping in such areas as St. Lawrence, Canada, the Shenandoah Valley,
Virginia, Long Island, and even Goat Island, Niagara Falls.

In 1929, Taylor, now a widower, moved to Rochester, N.Y., to live with one of his
daughters, the principle of School 41-Kodak Park. During the summer, he camped
outside the house in a tent. He moved to Carmel, N.Y., in 1837 to live with another
of his daughters and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley D. Cornish.

Sources:

John Young Diaries, 1893-1894, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University
of Texas at Austin.

The three volumes of the John Young diaries, 1893-1894, document the Canadian-born
sales man’s travels in the southwestern states. The diaries begin with Taylor’s
departure from Oswego, N.Y. on September 25, 1893, continue through his stop at the
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago before arriving in Tyler, Texas on October
1, to start work on his sales route. The last entry is December 31, 1894, in Salt
Lake City, Utah.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.